Ability to go forward/back a settable number of frames (like 7 or 24) using a non-existing combination (like Cmd+Shift + PgUp/Down on Mac and Ctrl+Shift + PgUp/Down on PC).
The number of frames could be set in the Keyboard Shortcuts panel.

Working frame by frame in the Photoshop CC2018 Timeline would have been too time consuming to achieve something like this.

But dealing with all the frames as a single large image was more practical, and really quite quick once I got trial versions of the software installed - hence my preferred use of the Filmstrip export format.

I used After Effects CS3 and Photoshop CS3 in order to work with the Filmstrip format they can generate.

I tested with a 1920x1080 piece of video on a 2014 MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM and Nvidia GPU

I think there may be a limitation though on how many frames can be exported as .FLM at one time from After Effects CS3 - I tried 5 second batches at 25fps but I think it may be possible to export a longer duration.

I then imported the very large .FLM image that was generated from all those frames into Photoshop CS3 to edit. I thought when working at 1920 x 1080 per frame there would be a huge slowdown but it really wasn't too bad - everything was quite speedy really.

Then I reimported the .FLM file back into After Effects CS3

And then I rendered out video from CS3 for After Effects CC2018 to reimport.

Once again, I realise we now have the Photoshop CC2018 Timeline and it's very useful indeed, but for reasons of time and efficiency I don't think it's as quite as applicable to what I've described above as the Filmstrip format is.

I also like the look of all the frames presented together in Filmstrip's grid format and would quite like to reduce the size, save as a regular image and animate the whole thing as a footage element - so I have to say I like the possibilities of the Filmstrip format.

I'm still relatively new to After Effects so if there's any better way of doing what I've described above, please let me know as I'd be interested to hear about it.

Thanks for your time.

Kind regards,

John

Hi,

Please can you bring back the Filmstrip export function which I think was dropped from After Effects after CS4 and I think from Premiere after CS3.

(Or alternatively, please can you make the CS3 and CS4 versions of Adobe CS software available through Creative Cloud subscription so the Filmstrip feature is readily available to use again.)

I realise that it's possible to draw on top of video frame by frame in the Photoshop CC2018 Timeline - and that's great, it's a very useful feature.

However I was trying to create a distressed effect across a video where precision as…

With the addition of the ability to choose between "source","mask" and "effects and masks" it becomes more and vital to be able to quickly point a layer's rvba and create an instance of it without downgrading it to 16 or 8bpc.
For now the quicker way to do this is to use arithmetic compound, blend, set channels but none of those are 32 bpc...

Median is a very conveniant effect when it comes to removal or retouching works and super fast when your project is set to 8bpc but when you turn it to 16bpc or more it takes forever to render. I would be really thankful if you could do some dev blackmagic to fix that

After Effects needs to improve its CINEWARE for going to be better and better en el flujo de trabajo VFX con Cinema 4D, being more compatible with this Maxon product (ProRender, hair tools, performance and more).

When doing character animation, I typically use Toonboom Harmony, and then render out PNG4 sequences for compositing in AE. However, since version 15.0.1, I've been having an issue where my PNG sequences were not having their alpha interpreted. While this is hard to convey without pictures, here's how I solved the issue and it may help you guys to squash the bug:

1) In Toonboom, I create an animation that starts on a full background, no alpha channel, then transitions in-animation to a wipe that then needs to be comped in AE.

2) Render it out as a PNG4 sequence with no color card, alpha enabled.

3) Before this update, AE would see the PNG4 and interpret the alpha channel at the end of the sequence, allowing for easy comping. However, in 15.0.1, no dice.

4) I bring one of the PNGs in Photoshop to double check if the PNG has alpha and, sure enough, it does.

5) I look at the sequence in AE for a minute and then have the idea that because the FIRST frame of this sequence does NOT have alpha, AE believes the WHOLE sequence does not have alpha, and thus does not interpret the PNGs that DO have an alpha channel.

6) I go back to Toonboom and render out the same PNG4 sequence but this time with one additional frame in the beginning: an empty frame, nothing in it. Pure alpha.

7) I bring the new sequence into AE and voila! The alpha channel for the whole sequence is now able to be interpreted, allowing for easy comping.

Of note, I tested this with an Animation codec render .mov, as well. When rendered at Millions of Colors+, if the starting frame has no alpha, the whole video is interpreted as having no alpha. Add one empty frame of pure alpha, and AE interprets the alpha and you can comp it.

This isn't just AE- the problem also exists in Premiere, where I do most of my editing.

It's an issue that I can work around, as adding one empty frame of alpha requires little on my end, but I can imagine that this will prove to be a headache for a lot of people that can't seem to get it to work, especially when it did until very recently.

Thanks for reading and listening! I look forward to a change.

When doing character animation, I typically use Toonboom Harmony, and then render out PNG4 sequences for compositing in AE. However, since version 15.0.1, I've been having an issue where my PNG sequences were not having their alpha interpreted. While this is hard to convey without pictures, here's how I solved the issue and it may help you guys to squash the bug:

1) In Toonboom, I create an animation that starts on a full background, no alpha channel, then transitions in-animation to a wipe that then needs to be comped in AE.

Specifically, the inability to copy keyframes or set a nested comp's Master Properties as a MP in a parent comp. Create a solid/null/something invisible, and apply multiple Effect Controls corresponding to each MP (Slider, Angle, Checkbox, etc.), then link the MP's to them with the new pickwhip.

It's a pretty clunky workaround, and not robust at all, but it's better than nothing (arguably).

What you can do? You could program it to work! The last update (15.1) is not acceptable on my system. My workflow is interrupted and I have to jump back to an older version (14.2). This costs time, money and annoyance. After Effects was(!) quality, stability and reliability. Now it has become a rattle box. Make AE great again!

Using AE since 1995 - on a PowerMacintosh with a dongle.
Now: MacBook PRO OSX10.13.4 - with annoy.

..when working with even semi-complex compositions with many layers, the composition panel becomes quite sluggish and slow to respond. Curiously, this is especially bad on Windows even if you throw very high end hardware at it. OSX does get slower in the same type of projects, but isn't nearly as bad. Experienced on multiple machines, over multiple versions of Windows, this is something that's been an issue for years, if not has always been there.

No system resources are being maxed out here. It would go a long ways for UX if you could at least get the GUI working smoothly and responsively on projects that aren't small/simple. AE would start to "feel" faster and snappier and more robust, instead of feeling like it's lagging and hanging up on just on the interface while nothing else is processing.

..when working with even semi-complex compositions with many layers, the composition panel becomes quite sluggish and slow to respond. Curiously, this is especially bad on Windows even if you throw very high end hardware at it. OSX does get slower in the same type of projects, but isn't nearly as bad. Experienced on multiple machines, over multiple versions of Windows, this is something that's been an issue for years, if not has always been there.

No system resources are being maxed out here. It would go a long ways for UX if you could at least…